Wand Maker

Chapter 5

"... should I wake her up?"

"I think so, she said to wake her up when Joseph did."

"But she looks so peaceful... I think that we should let her sleep."

Snippets of conversation became clearer, as did the talkers. Addy and Izzi were clearly debating on whether or not they should wake me up. I groaned, and rolled over, my eyes still closed. When I opened them, my friends were staring at me, obviously worried that they had woken me up unintentionally.

I sat up, and tried to clear the cobwebs from my mind. Then all of last nights' actions crashed through my head. I wondered if it was a dream. But one glance at my friends' faces told me that it was real. Which meant one thing.

"Joseph?" I asked, my throat dry and raspy.

"He's awake." Addy replied.

I threw off the covers and rushed downstairs. I entered the living room, Addy and Izzi thundering behind me. Joseph was sitting up, his new scars stretched across his bare chest. He was stroking the dog that Izzi had brought to life the night before. His blonde hair was a tousled mess from sleep.

I noticed all these things in the time it took him to register that he had company. Joseph looked up when he heard the ruckus made by me and my friends. He studied us, then cracked into a smile. "So... I guess you were the one to bring me back from the brink. Thanks."

"H-h-h-hey, no problem," I said, trying to stifle a yawn without much success. "Are you hungry? I can make you something."

"Sure." he smirked, "I didn't know you could cook."

I was already on my way to the kitchen, but I sighted his bottle of seaweed- like plant stuff, and I paused. "I didn't know you were a wizard." I replied softly. I resumed my walk to the kitchen, determined to fix Joseph his breakfast.

In the kitchen, I washed my hands and cracked some eggs into a beaker. I put in some egg whites, too, mostly to make the eggs go further. I only had 5, after all. Normally, I would put in milk, but Izzi was lactose intolerant. I turned up the stove and grabbed a whisk. I stirred the eggs until they were a yellow liquid, then poured them into a pan on the stove. I turned to start cutting up some fruit, and Joseph was there, in a shirt, a few feet away from me. I blinked, then recovered my wits.

"You should be resting." I say, reaching past him for a cutting board.

"You're hilarious. Essence of Dittany is specifically modified so that you can do whatever you want after it's applied, as opposed to lying on a bed all day to not stretch your injuries." He shot back. "Besides, I want to talk to you."

"I really doubt you aren't in some degree of pain." I argued. "You at least need to sleep it off."

"First of all, I have slept it off. Second of all, did you not just hear me? I want to talk to you." he retorted, stubbornly standing his ground. I took one look at his face and I realized he wasn't about to go back to sleep.

"Fine. But if you want to talk to me here, right now, you need to make yourself useful. Stir the eggs, will you?" I handed him a spatula. He wielded it with triumph, and started to stir the eggs. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked.

"You, actually. I want to know how you figured out how to cure me. I know I had Essence of Dittany in my bag, but how did you know it would work? It could've been tap water for all you knew." he dove in without preamble.

"Wow. You just love to get to the bottom of everything, don't you? I figured it out using pure logic. You aren't the type to carry around something that doesn't work, especially when you had a water bottle in your bag." I pointed out, "Plus, I can read. You labeled the bottle Essence of Dittany." He didn't comment on how I knew what it could do. We both had read the Harry Potter series.